Cut to the eighties and early nineties when Hyderabad-based studios like Padmalaya and Ramanaidu had made inroads into Bollywood with movies like Tohfa, Maqsad, Mawaali, Meri Awaaz Suno and Himmatwala to name a few (Jumping Jack Jeetendra being their mascot), giving an opportunity to Tollywood directors to unleash their potential. Producer D Suresh Babu shares an interesting anecdote of those times. Then, scripts in Hindi would be reproduced in Telugu to aid filmmakers who were not familiar with the language. Once when director K Muralimohan Rao was directing one such Hindi movie, the late Smita Patil asked the director whether he was able to comprehend the meaning of the dialogues. So imagine her shock when Rao told her that he not only understood the dialogues, but to reinforce his understanding of the film on hand, narrated the entire script to her (in Hindi) in one go. Of course, that was back then. However, with multilingual films sweeping the industry who is to say that the same scene is not being played out even now — a veritable tower of Babel. The lines between Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood and Sandalwood seem to be blurring as actors crisscross between these cinemas with singular ease. A Rana Daggubati becoming Bollywood’s blue-eyed boy is as much a possibility as say Nana Patekar being hosannaed by audiences in the south. It is polyglot cinema and prudent business module all rolled into one. New faces get exposure in different markets simultaneously, putting their career on the fast track. It is not a new wisdom, but it has caught the imagination of the film industry. Welcome to the multilingual trend in cinema.
Indian cinema is firmly in the grip of this new trend. In the last few years alone, many films have gone bilingual and some pushing the creative envelope have gone trilingual too. There’s no dearth of prominent examples. Last year itself, there were three multilingual films – Vinnaithandi Varuvaya/Ye Maaya Chesave (Tamil/Telugu), Rakta Charita (Telugu/Hindi/Tamil) and Ravan/Ravanan (Hindi/Tamil) directed by the best in the business — Gautham Menon, Ram Gopal Varma and Mani Ratnam, respectively. Before that in 2009, there was the Madhavan-Neetu Chandra starrer Yavaarum Nallum/13B, the Tamil-Hindi bi-lingual. Kannada film industry’s superstar Upendra came out of a 10-year hibernation to direct and act in Super, made in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil.
There are more in the pipeline — Eega (Telugu/Tamil), Pani Thuli (Tamil/Hindi), Neethane En Pon Vasantham (Tamil, Telugu and Hindi), The Businessman (Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi) and Cleopatra (Malayalam/Telugu/Tamil). Even superstar Rajinikanth (Rana) and Ulaga Nayakan Kamal Hassan (Vishwaroopam) have opted for multilingual projects.
So what has prompted the multilingual trend? Says Sudeep, Kannada actor-director-producer, who had a successful outing in Bollywood recently: “Entertainment has become cheap. One can even watch movies on a mobile phone these days, but there has been no corresponding reduction in production costs. By adding just another 30 per cent to the cost, a new print is ready. By catering to a huge market, the burden is divided and producers feel less at risk.” He adds as an afterthought, “It is nice to be appreciated in other states too.” Actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu, lauded for her performance as much for her beauty feels that it saves time, energy and money. She should know — she is acting in Gautham Menon’s Neethane En Pon Vasantham, a trilingual in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Why watch dubbed films she postulates when one can watch a film comfortably in the language of one’s choice. Kajal Agarwal, another actress who has made a mark in Telugu and Tamil films, feels that it is an effective way of story-telling, as it caters to the sensibilities of a particular audience. Right now, the pretty 20-something actress is busy with Puri Jagannath’s The Businessman, which will be made in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. A number of films remade in other languages have helped broaden the horizon for audiences across the country.
In fact, much before the multilingual trend, remakes were the order of the day. And once again, they were governed with the same motive as are multilingual films — the recovering of costs. Possibly the first remake happened way back in the late 1940s when Gemini Studios boss and South Indian movie moghul S S Vasan realised that his film Chandralekha was not raking in the expected moolah. So he decided to remake the film in Hindi. His gamble paid off with the Hindi version proving to be a box office hit. Others like L V Prasad followed suit, and remakes became very popular. From the black and white era with movies like Miss Mary to the recent remakes of movies such as Ghajini and Wanted, Bollywood has time and again looked for inspiration to the other side of the Vindhyas. But that does not mean that it was a one-way street. Hindi movies were often remade into Tamil. In fact, superstar Rajinikanth’s hit films like Billa, Padikkathavan and Baasha were remade from Amitabh’s Don, Khuddar and Hum, respectively. Possibly the one film that saw many remakes came from God’s own country. Manichitratazhu was made into Kannada (Apthamitra), Tamil and Telugu (dubbed) (Chandramukhi), Bengali (Rajmohol), and Hindi (Bhool Bhulaiyaa). It must be noted that most remakes were as successful as the original — Nayagan (Dayavan), Thevar Magan (Virasat), Gol Maal (Thillu Mullu), Maro Charitra (Ek Duje Ke Liye), Singham (Singham) and others. Last we heard, the Telugu hit Bommarillu is being remade into Hindi, titled It’s My Life. So be it!
Coming back to the multilingual film set-up, it does not augur well for only producers but is a great platform for actors. Vikram and Suriya, both big stars with a huge fan following in Tamil cinema, got a shot at Bollywood, courtesy their films Ravan and Rakta Charitha, respectively. Deepika Padukone, a popular actress in Bollywood managed a coup — she landed a plum assignment — Rajnikanth’s heroine in Rana, in all the different versions of the film. Sonu Sood who manages to flit effortlessly between Bollywood and the south and who makes a mean ‘Chedi Singh’ as he does an ‘Aghora’, also stars in Rana. Sudeep, who was ecstatic at having acted with the ‘veritable dictionary of acting — Amitabh Bachchan’, is now being introduced to Tamil/Telugu cinema via the movie Eega, a socio-fantasy directed by S S Rajamouli. Samantha will be making her Bollywood debut thanks to Neethane En Pon Vasantham. Nayantara, a big name in Tamil, was selected to play the heroine in superstar Upendra’s blockbuster Super. Priyamani, who can switch from glam doll to village belle with ease, feels that it gives one the opportunity to explore other languages and in the process hone one’s skill — a sentiment echoed by actors Sonu Sood and Ganesh Venkatraman, who has made his presence felt in movies such as Abhiyum Naanum and Unnaipol Oruvan.
Interestingly, Bollywood is not seen as the ticket to visibility and stardom. It is not the route to El Dorado as well. Samantha is not over the moon over her Bollywood debut. She says, quite categorically that she would always remain loyal to south cinema. “May be I am a little biased towards Bollywood,” she smiles. For Sudeep, Bollywood is just another industry. “In any industry, we are able to recover `80-90 crore. A good film, a good script is all that requires to win us over to some other industry. I came to Bollywood because of Ram Gopal Varma and similarly Tollywood beckoned on account of Rajamouli,” he says. Upendra who is the undisputed superstar of Kannada cinema, goes so far as to say that he is happy acting in just Kannada films. A few years ago, he did get some offers to direct a Hindi film, but it did not pan out. Also, he made Super in Telugu and Tamil on a whim – an ode to his fans there. Suriya, the brightest star in the Tamil film firmament, says that he will act in Bollywood only if a challenging offer comes along. Tamil cinema produces great quality cinema, thank you very much. Priyamani, who made her Bollywood debut courtesy Ravan, while appreciating that it was a bigger industry, a bigger market mentioned that it would tempt her only if a good script came her way. In fact, Malayalam superstar Mammootty managed to stir a hornet’s nest during the 2006 IIFA Awards ceremony held at Dubai when he commented that Bollywood is not the nomenclature for the Indian movie and that south Indian cinema should be known as Indian cinema. For every Asin Thombutkal who went lock, stock and barrel to Bollywood, there is a Mahesh Babu or a Samantha who is happy to be working in the cinema of their choice. That does not however stop Puri Jagannath from getting feelers from the Mumbaiwallahs to launch ‘Namrata’s husband’ in Bollywood!
Whether or not Bollywood is the passport to overall fame, visibility and success is open to contention and debate, but what everybody agrees to is that multilingual films demand a story that is universal in nature. Says successful Telugu director Puri Jagannath, “Pokkiri worked in both Tamil and Hindi because of its story”. Similarly, the Hindi version of Ghajini was able to emulate the success of the Tamil version as it appealed to audiences in Bollywood. Perhaps, the reverse is true of Mani Ratnam’s film Ravan, with the Tamil version faring much better than the Hindi version. Says Tamil filmmaker K S Ravikumar, who has a reputation for making commercial potboilers: “One cannot blindly copy a film. A little bit of tweaking is necessary to suit the mindset of a particular audience.” Keeping this is mind, the ending of the bilingual Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya and Ye Maaya Chesave was changed with the happily ever after ending being retained for the latter movie and a not so happy one for the Tamil version. Says Samantha, the film’s heroine, “Tamil audiences are very discerning. They might not have accepted a happy ending.” Similarly, RGV’s Rakta Charita had enough blood and gore to captivate both southern audiences and Bollywood. Another potent factor is the saleability of stars. Taking new faces might be risking it, says Puri Jagannath. No wonder RGV chose Vivek Oberoi and Suriya to play the protagonists in Rakta Charitra. Reveals director K S Ravikumar: “We chose Deepika Padukone as the female lead against superstar Rajnikanth because she is a well-known face”. Similarly, Samantha who has come into the public eye ever since her role in Ye Maaya Chesave, has been cast as the heroine in all the versions of Neethane En Pon Vasantham. Rajamouli chose Sudeep because he was both a successful star in Sandalwood and post Phoonk his visibility had increased immensely. After all, with the main motivation of producers (for going the multilingual route) being to recover their costs, it seems like sound business logic.But for all that, no one still knows what is the hit formula for a multilingual film.
Says Sudeep, “I wish I knew.We make mistakes in a certain film and tell ourselves that we should not repeat them. But, yet sometimes those very same mistakes in another film go on to make that film successful.” Says K S Ravikumar, “As a director of commercial films, I have no set formula as say a K Balachander whose every film is conceived in a particular manner.”
Making a multilingual is no piece of cake, however. It has its fair share of challenges and it helps if one is a linguist. Just a joke, mind you, but not very far from the truth. Kajal Agarwal, speaks Telugu fluently and can manage Tamil and Hindi. Suriya too is comfortable in speaking Telugu and Hindi. Speaking in Telugu was a challenge for Sudeep, but he managed. Question him on whether there were any ‘lost in translation’ moments and he says that he could write a book on them, but wisely prefers to make them unavailable for public consumption. Samantha, would mix up her lines often and dealing with three heroes meant she was up for some psywchiatrist treatment, she confesses laughingly. Priyamani remembers how when the Ravan/Ravanan unit packed up for the day, the actors discussed their performances including as well the challenges of speaking in another tongue, with co-star Vikram pondering whether he had got the grammar right or had not messed up the pronunciation. Ganesh Venkatraman, who is acting in the Tamil/Hindi bi-lingual Pani Thuli was fine when it came to mouthing the dialogues, but realised that lip synchronisation for the song and dance part, presented a challenge. The hunky Sonu Sood, who began his career in a Tamil film, brushes aside the challenge of speaking in an alien tongue. One wonders whether it is a moot question, as he did play a mute character in theTamil blockbuster Chandramukhi.
For Suriya, acting in a multilingual was an experience, he would never forget. “Firstly, dealing with three languages meant there had to be much focus on what one was doing and that was no easy job with 100-200 people milling about. For every language, the nuances changed. A lot also depended on the scriptwriter, for if a script was written in English and then translated into Tamil, many things could have been lost in translation,” he says. As for mouthing Hindi dialogues, he shoots off a cheeky reply in a deadpan voice, “Suriya Narayana Reddy, the protagonist I play is a south Indian. So if his Hindi is a little off, nobody would mind.”
But there is no argument when one declares that the biggest burden while making a multi-lingual rests with the directow. Says Kajal: “It’s only the director who has to take a call on the cultural differences.” Even Upendra had a tough time when he had to instruct two different actors (in the Kannada/Telugu versions of Super) while enacting a particular scene. So one can imagine what lies in store for Gautham Menon, who has shot each scene of the movie Neethane En Pon Vasantham, thrice—once in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Samantha confides that working in this multilingual was possible only because of Gautham who displayed a cool head.
While almost all actors were cagey when it came to their remuneration for a multilingual film, most of them disclosed that they were paid one block amount and not piece meal. Some even developed sudden amnesia or turned vague. Only the perky Samantha disclosed that she was paid close to double the amount for the film Neethane En Pon Vasantham.
For all that, the multilingual trend is becoming a rage these days it is not a new concept. Filmmakers had stumbled upon this success formula way back in the 1930s. Take the case of prolific filmmaker V Shantaram, whose film Sairandhri was a financial failure. Shantaram was hence looking to underwrite its cost by making a Tamil film reusing the sets at Kolhapur. He wrote to Sound and Shadow, a Chennai-based movie magazine asking for help. Finally, Shantaram’s cousin, Baburao Pendharkar directed the Tamil film, which was later remade in Telugu with a different set of actors. In the 1950s, there existed a trend of making films in Telugu and Tamil; Maya Bazar is a perfect example. Also, Bhanumathi, who is regarded as the first woman director of Telugu cinema made Chandiran in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi simultaneously and directed it, besides playing the title role.
It seems multilingual films are here to stay—a marriage between creative zeal and unabashed commerce. After all, why would anybody look a gift horse in the mouth? And if all the different cinemas regrouped to become Indian cinema, would that not be a Utopia of sorts?